December 11, 2011

"96 Hours to the Stone Age"

When the power goes down, cell service “gets shoddy.” That’s going to
happen when everyone grabs their phones at the same time. It’s the
wireless equivalent of everybody getting on the same roads at the same
time. But when 3G systems get congested, the coverage area of cell sites
can actually shrink, resulting in potentially bigger coverage holes in
addition to capacity issues.

The title comes from writer's discovery that the diesel generators providing back-up power to a central switching facility for one of the wireless companies have four days' worth of fuel.